establishment of our own, and indeed my mother advised it, though
she was sorry to have us leave her.

After several interviews with Mr. Allis we came to an agreement
that as soon as his son Thomas arrived from Europe I was to take
him into partnership on equal terms and he was to pay me a bonus
of three thousand dollars.

A couple of weeks later my sign again came down and a new one went
up, reading W. E. Stowe & Co.

With three thousand dollars in the bank my mind was again at ease
and we immediately looked for our new home.

We were offered a very prettily furnished, nicely located house,
a few blocks from my mother's, for the summer at a very low rent.
We decided to take it and not look up a permanent home until fall.

Our housekeeping that summer was a delightful experience and we
knew we should never again be satisfied to board. We were fortunate
in getting a good maid, the boy kept well, we had a cool summer,
business was fairly good and we had soon forgotten the hard times
of the previous winter.

Of course, we were prudent in our expenditures, but we lived well
and did a little entertaining.

In October we rented and furnished tastefully but inexpensively
a three-story and basement house, one of a new row in a pleasant
street, not far from the residence of Mr. Sherman.